New ISRO chief

K Radhakrishnan became the chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today (October 31, 2009) succeeding G Madhavan Nair.

Till now, Radhakrishnan was the Director of ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSCC) at Thiruvananthapuram and member of the Space Commission. He was the key person in India's moon mission Chandrayaan-1, responsible for the PSLV C-11 launch vehicle.

He stewarded five successful launches of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) including Chandrayaan-1, and ISRO release said.

A technocrat, Radhakrishnan started his career as an avionics engineer in 1971 at VSSC.

He has been the project director for setting up Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres and also a director of the National Natural Resources Management System-Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres.

Radhakrishnan had a short stint in India's ministry of earth sciences as the founder Director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and was the first project director of Indian National Tsunami Warning System.